Note: In the “Are You Working?” series, a Ph.D. and academic-writing coach answers questions from faculty members and graduate students about scholarly motivation and productivity. This month’s ...

I vividly recall when an editor in chief invited me to publish in a well-known journal. Fresh from defending my dissertation, I still grappled with understanding how publishing worked in academia—like ...

Nothing is more frustrating during the writing process than stopping because we cannot find an appropriate word or phrase. We have the idea in our head but no matter what combination of words we try, ...

Stereotypical academic writing is rigid, dry, and mechanical, delivering prose that evokes memories of high school and undergraduate laboratory reports. The hallmark of this stereotype is passive ...

Writing assignments at the university level often require an academic voice. There are certain aspects of academic voice that are more formal than every day, conversational speech. Typically, academic ...

Academic writing will probably be very different to writing that you have produced before. There are very specific conventions, characteristics and rules that need to be adhered to. They convey ...

Academic writing is defined by conventions rather than rules and so its style varies. The point is not for you and your peers to produce identical pieces of writing , but to provide a shared framework ...